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Urban existence is frequently characterized as “rapid.” A recent investigation indicates that this might be truer than ever.
The study, co-authored by scholars from MIT, reveals that the typical walking tempo of pedestrians in three northeastern U.S. cities rose by 15 percent between 1980 and 2010. Additionally, the number of individuals lingering in public areas decreased by 14 percent during that period.
The researchers employed machine-learning techniques to analyze video footage from the 1980s captured by the acclaimed urban planner William Whyte, in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. They contrasted the older content with more recent recordings from the same sites.
“Something has shifted over the last four decades,” states Carlo Ratti, an MIT professor and co-author of the new research. “The pace at which we walk, the way people interact in public areas — what we observe here is that public spaces function in noticebly different ways, serving more as thoroughfares and less as venues for interaction.”
The article, “Examining the social dynamics of urban environments through AI,” is released this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The co-authors include Arianna Salazar-Miranda MCP ’16, PhD ’23, an assistant professor at Yale University’s School of the Environment; Zhuanguan Fan from the University of Hong Kong; Michael Baick; Keith N. Hampton, a professor at Michigan State University; Fabio Duarte, associate director of the Senseable City Lab; Becky P.Y. Loo of the University of Hong Kong; Edward Glaeser, the Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics at Harvard University; and Ratti, who is also the director of MIT’s Senseable City Lab.
The findings could assist in informing urban design, as planners aim to establish new public spaces or adapt existing ones.
“Public spaces play a crucial role in civic life, and currently, they help counteract the polarization of digital environments,” comments Salazar-Miranda. “The more effectively we enhance public spaces, the better we can make our cities conducive to gathering.”
Catch you at the Met
Whyte was a notable social theorist whose influential 1956 book, “The Organization Man,” which examined the apparent culture of corporate conformity in the U.S., became a hallmark of its era.
Nonetheless, Whyte dedicated the later years of his career to urban studies. The footage he recorded, from 1978 to 1980, was preserved by a Brooklyn-based nonprofit organization called the Project for Public Spaces and subsequently digitized by Hampton and his students.
Whyte selected four locations across the three cities: Boston’s Downtown Crossing area; New York City’s Bryant Park; the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, a renowned gathering spot and people-watching location; and Philadelphia’s Chestnut Street.
In 2010, a team led by Hampton filmed new footage at those sites, at the same times of day as Whyte did, to compare and analyze contemporary dynamics against those from Whyte’s era. For the study, the co-authors utilized computer vision and AI models to summarize and quantify the activities in the videos.
The researchers discovered that some elements have remained largely unchanged. The portion of individuals walking alone barely fluctuated, from 67 percent in 1980 to 68 percent in 2010. Conversely, the rate of individuals who entered these public spaces and joined a group diminished somewhat. In 1980, 5.5 percent of those approaching these locations connected with a group; by 2010, that figure had dropped to 2 percent.
“Perhaps there’s a more transactional nature to public spaces today,” Ratti notes.
Fewer outdoor gatherings: Anomie or Starbucks?
If people’s social habits have morphed since 1980, it’s reasonable to ponder why. Undoubtedly, some observable changes align with the widespread use of cell phones; individuals now coordinate their social lives via phone and may dart around more swiftly as a consequence.
“When you observe the footage from William Whyte, the individuals in public areas were engaging with one another more,” Ratti observes. “It was an environment where you could initiate a conversation or encounter a friend. Online interactions weren’t an option back then. Nowadays, behavior often hinges on texting beforehand to gather in public spaces.”
As the researchers point out, if groups of individuals congregate slightly less often in public venues, another factor could be at play: coffee shops like Starbucks. The paper suggests that outdoor group interaction may have diminished because of “the rise of coffee establishments and other indoor settings. Rather than spending time on sidewalks, individuals might have shifted their social gatherings into air-conditioned, more comfortable indoor spaces.”
Indeed, coffee shops were far less prevalent in large cities in 1980, and major chain coffeehouses did not exist.
On the flip side, public behavior might have been evolving all along, independent of Starbucks and similar establishments. The researchers assert that the new study offers a proof-of-concept for their approach and has motivated them to pursue further investigations. Ratti, Duarte, and other scholars from MIT’s Senseable City Lab are now focusing on an extensive survey of European public spaces to gain deeper insight into the interactions between individuals and public forms.
“We are gathering footage from 40 squares across Europe,” Duarte states. “The objective is: How can we learn at a broader scale? This is partially what we’re undertaking.”
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